In the run-up to BTS' long-awaited group comeback on March 20, 2026, we're walking you through the band's back catalog. Here, Martina Rexrode takes us back to where it all began: DARK&WILD, the debut album by BTS. 

 

 

Nowadays, a K-pop group’s first full-length album can often be seen as just another, albeit longer, collection of songs to follow a mini-album or single without any major fanfare. But on 20 August 2014, when a young BTS released DARK&WILD in its fourteen track entirety, they weren’t just putting out their first album. They introduced the world to a group with overflowing ambition who would go on to live up to every goal they set.

On 2 COOL 4 SKOOL, their debut single album, and O!RUL8,2?, their first mini-album, both released in 2013, BTS began the slow process of carving out their own unique space in a K-pop industry that had long been driven by the “Big Three” entertainment companies: SM, YG, and JYP. They ditched their prior school uniform aesthetic a year and two months after their debut, and donned leather pants, gold accessories, and side-swept hair for their first major step towards superstardom.

The album’s opening track, “Intro: What Am I to You,” sets up the darker emotional tone that each track to follow embraces. After the sound of chatter and an electronic schoolbell fade, a string orchestration preludes RM’s first rap verse. BTS’ leader takes the reins for this track, enthusiastically sharing the love he feels for someone, until his tone and the instrumental shift to reveal a darker infatuation. 

 

“My bitter smile has become a habit at some point / And you say you don't like me but you don't hate me either,” he raps in the second verse. Along the way to love, he begins to realize how unstable their relationship has become. By the time he finally begs the question stated in the title, the instrumental has burst into a cacophony that threatens to envelope him completely, not unlike their relationship.

 

What better way to back up RM’s claims, than to have the rest of the group ask the same question on the album’s title track: “Danger” sees BTS at one of their greatest levels of teenage angst. From the lyrical repetition in each chorus to the guitar-driven instrumental and its infamous Jung Kook rap verse, this track never shies away from its theatrics. Jimin’s vocals ooze with desperation, while RM, j-hope, and SUGA’s rap verses take a more direct route at confronting the lover who keeps messing with their hearts. Listeners either walk away from “Danger” begging for just one more chance, or fearing the thought of ever playing with the members’ hearts.

If “Danger” wasn’t enough to display how young BTS were when DARK&WILD came out – and how far they’ve come since – “War of Hormone” should do the trick. With lyrics that are often read as misogynistic, urging women to wear high heels more often and complimenting both their “front view” and “back view,” this track has long held mixed opinions for most fans. Despite its questionable meaning and comedic choreography, “War of Hormone” is another addition to the angst-ridden narrative of the album as a whole. The song and music video depict the members ogling women they pass on the street, and struggle to fight their own urges in a way that has largely faded from the more modern K-pop landscape. It’s undeniably uncomfortable in retrospect, but it’s an important sign of the times and a touchstone of BTS’ early years.

 

As the album continues, B-sides like “Let Me Know” and “Look Here” continue the romantic narratives, with the former asking questions while the latter makes demands. “Rain” speaks to someone who could be heartbroken and feeling lost, but it also moves the album into more universal territory. Stepping away from the frustration of a young love story, this track uses the atmosphere of a Seoul rainstorm to accompany the day-by-day of someone living what feels like an endless cycle of disappointment and confusion. The last lines of SUGA’s rap verse get this feeling across beautifully: “Am I someone who engraved my existence to you like the rain? / If not, am I just someone who came and went like a rain shower?” – an early glimpse of the poetic relatability fans would later associate with BTS.

 

With the nature of DARK&WILD coming out during the infant years of social media as we know it today, a song like “Could You Turn off Your Cell Phone” is particularly impressive. The opening lines, “Could you turn off your cell phone? / Everyone says it's smart / But we're all getting dumber,” were likely more humorous in 2014 than in 2026. Now, at a time when the generations who grew up with smartphones and the ability to have the world at your fingertips are rebelling against many technological advancements, it seems BTS knew a thing or two about how this might end up. 

Rather than looking toward the future, a track like “Hip Hop Phile” turns inward for BTS’ rap line. Given how many of K-pop’s sonic elements have been shaped by Black artists and American rap music, it remains relatively rare for idols to credit those influences by name within their songs. In “Hip Hop Phile,” RM, j-hope, and SUGA do exactly that, referencing artists such as Nas, Pete Rock, Mac Miller, Kendrick Lamar, and Epik High – figures who helped shape both their sound and their worldview. The chorus reads like a compact thank-you note: “(Hip! Hop!) Has the scent of humans / (Hip! Hop!) Writing down my life / (Hip! Hop!) Is now part of my life.”

 

Without “Hip Hop Phile,” a track like “BTS Cypher, Pt. 3: KILLER” might not have felt as genuine or impressive. The rap line fills out this four and a half minute song on their own with punchy lines, clever innuendos, and an instrumental that subtly adapts to each rapper’s energy. It’s one thing to state your love for Nas’ music in an interview. It’s another thing to not only name drop your influences in your lyrics, but to also apply their teachings regularly. On what is commonly regarded as the group’s best cypher track, RM, j-hope, and SUGA cemented their place front and center in K-pop’s rapper hall of fame, all within a year and two months of their debut.

 

In retrospect, rather than feeling like a rough draft of what BTS would later become, DARK&WILD stands on its own as a tightly woven portrait of youth, fixation, and emotional excess. More than anything, it captures an early BTS at a point where ambition outweighed certainty, setting the emotional and thematic groundwork for everything that followed.